Hi, maggzs,

You are more than welcome to join us! Whereabouts in Aus are you? My husband was from Melbourne, although he lived in Queensland for some time, too.

I agree about missing the wine.. I have allowed for an occasional beer or wine in my program and that's working pretty well. The hard thing is to not build it in every single day. I'm trying to limit it to Fridays and/or Saturdays, when we usually have something social going on. That's made it much easier.

Welcome to our little group, and it's great to see you succeeding in your goals!!

All the best, Rae

Welcome, Maggzs!
My daughter went to Australia and New Zealand last summer for a tour with her high school band. She had such a great time!
Good luck with your weight loss. Just remember, you may miss the wine tonight, but you won't miss the weight you lose when you don't drink it!!! I try to limit myself to one glass every 3 or 4 days, but the past couple days, I've blown it. Darn cabernet! Anyway, I'm going to be good today and get back on track. I turn 43 on Friday and want to be really in shape and at my goal some time this summer.

Hi, Allison,

You're awesome and deserve a big fanfare for getting back on your plan! <insert big fanfare here!> I know what you mean about cabernet... I'm crazy for it. Although some incredible shiraz can be had from Australia....

I read somewhere (maybe here?) that your body treats alcohol like a very intense carbohydrate -- it will burn it first, so anything else you consume gets stored as fat instead. Depressing, and keeps me off the wine.

I'm staying on track today. Now... I'm kicking my butt to go paint!!

All the best, Rae

Oh, I love my wine too! I'll be 40 in May and am hoping to have this weight gone by then, but that does mean cutting it out. I do have a little now and then though. ;-) I don't crave sweets or carbs but I do have a problem with fatty foods.

Hi maggzs, fancy seeing you here! LOL. We do seem to have a lot in common. Here's to losing and looking great by 40! Cheers!

Welcome, Carol! We'll look forward to encouraging everyone to give up the wine a bit in lieu of losing a pound or two!!!!

Rae, that is interesting about the body storing everything other than the wine as fat. No wonder I've packed on all these extra pounds!!! I'm doing really well today. I'm saving my wine day for Friday (birthday!).

Hi, all,

How is everyone doing? Staying on track?

I'm doing well so far. No idea if I've lost any weight because I don't have a scale and obsess over the readings if I do. I'll only weigh periodically when I head to the doc's. But I'm staying on my plan and the assumption is the weight will come off if I do.

I need some exercise ideas. My preferred exercise, walking, has been severely curtailed due to an extremely sore foot. I think it's a bad case of plantar fasciaitis (sp?), probably caused from carrying too much tonnage, and when I walk it feels like I'm stepping on a big bruise on my right heel. Ow! I do necessary walking around our place 3 times a day to look after animals, which probably amounts to 3,500 steps a day, but I need to do more than this. Suggestions extremely welcome!

Have been busy with painting our kitchen so we can finish The Eternal Remodel. Lots more painting ahead.

Food plan for the day:

B: 1 soft-boiled egg with 1 slice toast and 1 tsp butter;
S: 1 banana
L: sandwich made with 2 sl bread, lean roast beef, tomato and lettuce with 34 baked Cheetos (thank god for 'em!);
S: 1/2 cup cottage cheese;
D: 6 oz. baked chicken with mushroom and onion rice pilaf and steamed spinach;
S: 1 low fat fudge bar.

What's everyone else having?

Looking forward to hearing from any or all of you!

XO, Rae

Hi, Rae
If not having a scale and staying on track works for you, way to go.

I've been working on breaking the habit of weighing every day and I think I've done it. It affects my mood too much. I'll weigh in tomorrow.

My former Weight Watchers instructor told me that I was weighing too much if I was weighing everyday and paying too much attention to the numbers on the scale. She had told another member who was struggling with losing weight and weighing every day to bring her scale in and let her keep it. She did and immediately lost the weight that she had struggled to lose.

It's different for each person. Some people do better weighing everyday, some once a week as I try to do and some not as often as that. Whatever works for you!

Hope your foot feels a lot better. Right now I'm alternating between Richard Simmons Dance Your Pants Off and Walk Away The Pounds.

My plan for the day:
B Oatmeal,FFMilk,Eggbeater,Orange Juice,Decaf Coffee with Non-dairy
and Splenda

L Salad with 2 oz. lean turkey, FF Milk, 2 sl. Light Wheat Bread, Non-
fat spread, sugar-free strawberry preserves

S 1 Apple

D 3 oz. lean beef, seasoned rice, green beans

S 94% Fat-free popcorn or pretzels

And not to forget my 96 oz. of water for the day
Denise

Hi, GR8 (love the nick!),

Glad you have joined us, though except for Allison, I'm not sure where the others have gone. No matter. We shall continue on our journey together, and hopefully they will rejoin us along the way.

Re your scale obsession, that was exactly my problem... I put way too much store by what the scale was telling me and shortchanged all the other ways I could measure my success -- so I stopped with the scale. Now I have all kinds of ways to measure my progress besides the scale, some conventional (looser clothes), some a little goofy (can I leave that last bite on the plate?)… I have found that in the long run, the other measures are more important for me than the scale.

I once heard that when you hit a plateau, it means your body is redistributing your remaining fat stores -- so it’s during a plateau that you’re most likely to see changes in how your clothes fit and such. I don’t know if this is true. If it’s not, I’d rather not know!

Your exercise and food plans sound very healthful but enjoyable. Have you had a good rest-of-the-week? I hope so!

The foot, unfortunately, is still very sore. I think I’m going to have to resort to <gasp> leg-lifts, crunches and other exercises done from a prone position. If it’s not better by the end of next week, I guess it’s off to the footie doc with me.

Look forward to hearing an update from you and the rest of our gang!

All the best, Rae

I've had a decent week, got out of park and lost 2lbs.
Rae, that's really interesting information about the redistribution of fat stores causing the plateau. I'll have to remember that.

There have been times I've seen the loss on the scales and not much has changed with the clothes, then again I've not seen a change on the scales, but my clothes are baggy.

I'm just thankful for all the support here. It's really helped me out.

Denise

Hi, all,

Just checking in and hoping I'm not yapping to myself here.

It's been a good week so far and no cheating, although Monday was hard. I have no idea why, but the basic same diet I've been following (between 1300-1500 calories a day, loosely based on Weight Watchers) left me starving. I stayed on my program but I was not happy about it. Some whining occurred. Yesterday, things were back to normal.

The foot is still bad so I have an appointment with my doc tomorrow. Hopefully I'll be walking a lot more again soon!

Kitchen remodel is progressing fast now. After over a year, we finally moved the new, massive range into its rightful place! It will be hooked up and functioning by this weekend -- what a milestone!

How is everyone else?

All the best, Rae

Hi Rae, I'm still here! I've had a pretty busy week so I wasn't on as much as I'd like to be. :-)

I have days when I'm just starving, and then others when I have to make myself eat. Go figure! I always find the days I'm hungry (and I don't give in!) show up later on with a loss. Must just be the body not wanting to let go of it's nice little fat stores.

I do weigh every day, but I look at the number as a way of letting me know if I did ok or not the day before, or if I've had too much sodium or if it's that time of the month...etc. Actually I weigh many times twice a day, night and morning because there's always at least 3LB difference. This lets me know that slight weight fluctuations don't count and it really depends on a lot of factors. Some can't do that but I find it keeps me on track from day to day.

Ohh, I can't wait to remodel the kitchen! Probably in the fall after DD goes to University. I'm already in the planning stages.

Sorry to hear your foot is still bothering you, hope you're feeling better soon!

Hi, Mrs. Moby,

Your kitchen remodel sounds exciting! I think I had as much fun planning mine as I've had putting it all together. When we bought our place, we loved everything about it but the house -- which was adequate but just not our style. We've spent the past year rennovating and we're finally starting to feel as comfortable with the dwelling as we do with the acreage! Plus when we're done, it will be too pretty to cook in (kidding) -- which should help me stay on my food plan.

On another happy note, I've lost 8 pounds!! The doc's nurse commented that I was the first person she'd seen who was actually eager to step on the scale. I'm motivated to keep on going!

Re the foot, I've been given an alarming-looking splint/bootie thingie to wear at night which did not delight my husband (who claims I already take up more than my fair share of space).. the doc swears it will help, so I'm giving that a try along with some stretching exercises and inserts for the heels of my shoes that feel like I'm walking on banana slugs.

Good onya for your continuing weight loss -- I'm looking forward to being where you are! Hope you have a wonderful weekend!

All the best, Rae

I can identify with the wine at night and NO exercise! I work at a desk job and go home and sit or lay until bedtime. I am working on this. I have a treadmill and am too lazy to use it. I have health problems and I need both exercise and a good diet, but it seems like my will power has been lost somewhere and can't find "home". Please feel free to private email me anytime. I have an email address at home also. The one listed on this site is a work email. Hang in there! WE CAN DO IT!!

Hi everyone!
My weight has been at a plateau for a week or so, but I'm not worried any longer! I was worried that my fall yesterday (more later) would make me postpone too much walking and I thought I only had a week left before I go back to work full time. Well, I've been given a reprieve from work! I was to start 4/3/06, but my computer has not come in, the other girl has not moved, so there is no place for me!!! I'll be playing it one week at a time as they'll call me the week before I am to start. I was hoping for this! I've been having such a lovely time not working and I really wasn't looking forward to going back.....

As for the aforementioned fall. Yep, out on my 4.3 mile walk with the dogs. The sidewalk came up and bit me and I landed face first. I must have stubbed my toe as it still hurts, but what is amazing is how much my shoulders hurt today (from catching myself). My hand and knees are bruised. Needless to say, I didn't walk today (can't even imagine putting on a closed toed shoe!). But, I will have next week, and the week after, and perhaps even more!!!!! (I was thankful that no one was around to see me fall--how embarrassing! My dogs just stood over me, panting, probably wondering what on earth I was doing on the ground!)

Rae, the boot will work. My old employee had the same thing and she wore the boots (both feet) and within a couple weeks she was pain free.
So, here I go, more determined than ever to stay on track and lose some more BEFORE I go back to work!

Take care!

Hi, all,

Whew, what a weekend!! We finally got our massive free-standing range set in its rightful place in the kitchen. This is such an accomplishment, since it has been keeping company with us in the family room for a year. We made impressive progress in the kitchen remodeling project and did a BUNCH of tiling work. It's starting to look like an actual kitchen! I’m trying to look at the remodel as an opportunity to use all these wonderful new tools for cooking healthful meals and not as an excuse to experiment with rich sauces and delicate, warm, creamy desserts.

In addition to this flurry of domestic activity, we were invited out for dinner on both Friday and Saturday nights – which almost never happens, because 1) we’re new to the area and 2) we’re not that social. I think I handled both meals pretty well, saving calories for each night as well as eating in moderation. On Saturday night our friends made a really wonderful lemon Bavarian cream for dessert. I had one helping and considered it a win… I could have stuck my head in the bowl. The drinks flowed freely both nights and I held the line at one glass of wine each evening. Still missed it, though. And I’m still thinking about that lemon Bavarian cream!

Today it was back to the reality of my daily life. I shoveled out the bi-weekly utility trailer full of horse poo into the vegetable garden. Then it was on to grouting all that tile we set over the weekend. I’m hanging tough on the restricted food intake and hoping it will pay off as planned.

Allison, I hope your toe is feeling better! What an awful experience. I’m glad you were not more seriously hurt – sounds like it was bad enough. And what a lucky break, to get your work reprieve! I’m sure you will put the time to good use and enjoy every minute! Thanks for the encouragement about the boot. I admit I feel like I ought to be strapping on a ski after I’m done putting on the boot. Most mornings I find I’ve scraped it off sometime during the night. It does seem to be helping, but all this standing around on bare concrete while we work in the kitchen is probably slowing down the healing process some. I’m being good wearing it, though.

Tired arms tonight from scrubbing all that grout and shoveling all that poo… time for bed and the boot.

More soon and would love to hear how you all are doing, Rae